Man falls asleep at wheel, crashes into power pole

A Victoria man crashed into a power pole on Laurent Street on Sunday morning after falling asleep behind the wheel.

William Canchola, 31, was driving home from work at 6:42 a.m. in a gold 2000 Toyota Avalon when he fell asleep at the wheel, crossed over the southbound lane, hit a curb and crashed into a power pole at 4100 N. Laurent St., police said.

Victoria Police Officer Chris Case said Canchola was awakened upon impact and was not injured in the wreck.

Canchola caused damage to his vehicle and broke the base off the power pole.

AEP was called to the scene to repair the pole, Case said.

The damaged pole did not cause an outage, AEP spokesman Elgin Janssen said.

When crews replaced the pole, they had to disconnect power to four customers from 12:45 p.m. to 2:45 p.m.

The driver is considered to be responsible for the damages, Janssen said.